For One Moment
by Through Darkness
Summary: Of the chaos when a giant mansion contains mutants. Can frustration lead to more then just that? Stress, chaos, and romance? Could it work? Maybe. Maybe its time to save the world...again. Romy, Tabietro, Jonda, LoganMystiquePherma On Hiatus!
1. Of Strange Additions

Hey guys! Welcome to my amazingly lovely story "For One Moment". It seems a bit like crazy chaos, but I promise will calm down soon, so please, enjoy and review!

**Disclaimer: **I do NOT own the X Men, Marvel comics. Generally I like to keep my OC's to a minimum, so you don't even have to worry about that.

So enjoy!

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Over the past two years the mansion had gone into serious renovation, though none of the students knew why. It had expanded up, back and down. Another floor was added on top of the house and below. Three new wings were added and transformed into empty bedrooms, just ready to fill up with new Mutant students. The Danger room had be moved to the second underground level, now much larger and more vigorous with the types of training and simulations there. The only good part the students had thought of so far was the extra bathrooms that had been built- including adding a few more to the wing where all the X Men currently slept.

As it was, Logan just came in from the new garage, added into the back of the house, which was double the size of the old one. He nodded to the three mutants in the kitchen who were pooled over a tub of ice cream. "Stripes, Half-Pint, Elf."

They each nodded and smiled at him, Kurt's mouth full of ice cream. Kitty smiled and whispered "Hi, Mr. Logan." Rogue ran up in front of him, blocking his path.

"Logan, do we know what the renovations are for? The professor still isn't telling us nothing." She stared up at him with her hands in her pockets.

"Look, Stripes, I told you before. When Chuck wants you to know, you'll know. Until then, I ain't spilling my guts for you. So boot it." He gave her a soft smile – she was one of the few who could get such a reaction from him.

_X Men, please report to the front foyer. This is not an emergency and uniforms are not required, but people who get here fast enough will receive an edible reward._

Kurt's eyes lit up at the word 'edible reward' and the spoon of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream fell out of his mouth when he teleported away. Kitty and Rogue calmly walked to the front foyer, where they saw their favourite fuzzy dude munching on a rather large cookie.

"Cookies, Professor? I'm like, totally fine with that." Kitty grabbed a cookie from the plate he was holding and sort of swayed as she ate her cookie.

Rogue, however, was not as easily swayed. "What's the catch?" Scott, Jean, Beast, Ororo, Logan, Jamie, Amara, Rob, Ray, Sam, Bobby, Jubilee, and Tabitha filed into the foyer, a few taking a cookie, a few not. Rogue looked them over and sighed.

The last two years had changed them all. Scott and Jean were still a couple and were home, permanently, from college as anti-mutant problems had been so harsh there. Jamie had shot up over the last two years, and now, at 15, was 5'8 and likely to still be growing. Amara had grown out her hair to be down to her waist and was finished growing. Sunspot seemed the same, though he was more confident in all areas – it turned out the boy was a rather good cook. Jubilee had finally come back after her parents saw anti-mutant rallies in their town and figured she would be safer with other mutants. Tabitha rejoined the X-Men after leaving the brotherhood, but was still terrible at following the rules.

Romantically, things were fairly steady. Rahne visited often from Muir Island, and she and Rob seemed to be on excellent terms. Rogue had caught them, on occasion, holding hands and snuggled up in the Recreational room. Jubilee and Bobby had started dating two months after she got back, and they seemed happy, but maybe a little rocky. Rogue shook her head lightly and turned her eyes back to the Professor.

"As you all know, we have added many new things to the mansion over the last two years. And now, all the new rooms are built and everything is ready. Almost." Charles nodded to Logan who opened the door to reveal many moving trucks. "We just have the furniture to move around." A groan was omitted from the students.

Logan quickly handed out tasks to everyone. People started moving immediately, and powers were certainly being used. Boom-Boom had the quick suggestion that they blow a hole in the ceiling and just 'throw' the furniture up, but received only a scary glare from Logan in response.

Time went by quickly. Kurt teleported bed pans up the stairs while girls carried mattresses. Jean levitated as many things as she could –nightstands, lamps, mirrors- while Scott, Bobby, Jamie, Ray, Sam and Beast carried more heavy things such as dressers and bookshelves. Roberto carried whatever he could find, since he was swelled up, enjoying how the sun was shining down hot and heavy.

Rogue and Kitty were upstairs with Ororo, Jubilee and Tabitha, arranging things into the rooms. They had moved up boxes of bed sheets, pillows, and other necessities.

At the end of the day, everybody sat in the living room, looking fairly worn out. Even Logan looked like he could use some sleep.

"X-Men, you have done an excellent job today. All the rooms are now fully equipped and ready for all the new mutants to come in."

"What new mutants, Professor?" Jean questioned, looking up from where she had been resting against Scott.

"Ah yes, of course. You have all noticed how the anti-mutant activity has changed and become more aggressive in the last two years, and I fear it will only get worse. So I have invited every mutant I could find to come and stay here, in the mansion. A great many are coming from all over. It will be more crowded, but the renovations were to enable the mansion to hold a large mass of people more comfortably."

He paused, folding his hands under his chin. "Some of the mutants coming here you will have interacted with before. Please try to leave old grudges behind and remember that now all of us must band together and fight for our place in a world that we hope, will come to a better tomorrow. I wish you all good night." With that, his wheelchair left them with a slight 'whrr' noise and they all sat in silence.

"Ororo, Logan, Dr. McCoy…do you know how bad the protests are?" Scott asked quietly. It was almost too harsh to grasp, the idea that they had to all live together because they could not be accepted by society.

"Well child…they're have been protests, and open criticisms, and some property damages all around the country. More then a few mutants have been assaulted simply because of what we are." The weather goddess answered softly.

"We have to stick together now. Because right now…each other is all we have." Dr. McCoy added softly. It seemed as though at that moment, everyone in the room's head drooped slowly.

One by one, they all faded away, walking to another area of the mansion. Soon only Rogue and Logan were left. He looked her in the eye, a neutral 'lost-in-thought' type expression on his face. Her eyes looked lost and sad –in mourning for the pain of their kind around the world. Silently, Logan stood and moved to the couch where she was sitting and sat down next to her. Rogue moved her head into his lap and just rested. Not really crying, just sort of weeping without tears.

He stroked her hair slowly, comforting. Logan and Rogue had grown so close over the years. He was her father now. She really didn't want to know who her real one was – she had a great big, overprotective, angry, disgruntled Canadian to take the role for her.

They sat like that for two hours, Wolverine just holding his adopted daughter. Soon, she was done and she sat up, and looked at him with sad eyes, emerald orbs lost to grief.

"I know it's hard to think that we have to face this, Stripes. But we're going to be okay." She nodded, smiling sadly.

"I know, Logan." She paused for a minute, looking away and then looking back. "Can I help you train the newbies?"

He chuckled lightly. "Of course you can." He hugged her, careful to avoid skin-to-skin contact. "We'll give 'em hell together." Rogue calmed as she rested in his arms.

"That reminds me, Stripes. Couple things are going to be going on in the next few days as the new recruits roll in." Green eyes met brown ones as he spoke. "The Professor thought it'd be a good idea to have everybody's DNA on file…something about comparing similar X genes for training or something or other. And he wants me to try and help you train to see if we can work with your powers a bit better. Maybe even…find a way to help you control it. And the psyches."

"The psyches? But Ah can't control them…Ah've tried so many times Logan, but they keep getting' free…"

"Well, Chuck figures that while Apocalypse had you, you help control of the powers you absorbed for a really long time, so you have the power to still use them even now. That maybe Apocalypse gave you a power boost that you still have with you. I think. I wasn't really paying attention. I just let 'Ro listen and I just kinda sit there until he interests me."

She smirked. "And details about meh don't interest ya?" And for that, he took his knuckles and rubbed them against her skull while she laughed.

Rogue stood outside the Bayville Train Station, waiting for the new recruits to get off. Kitty was sitting in Scott's car next to Kurt while Rogue leaned against the driver's door.

"Man, vhen are ze newbies getting here? I'm hungry." Kurt muttered. Rogue smiled. _You're always hungry, _she thought.

"You're always hungry!" Kitty protested.

"I'm a growing boy!" He answered, as always.

The three of them grinned. Kurt, now 19, wasn't actually growing anymore but he still ate the same.

"Ah have ta agree with ya, Kurt. It'd be nice if they got here. Ah'm tired." It had been three days since her training with Logan, and the intense meditations and working with psyches was wearing Rogue out.

Just then, four people walked up to them. A girl with long turquoise hair that reached down to her waist, a bald man with numerous tattoos, a tall, blonde supermodel looking woman and a shorter girl with long brown hair and tanned skin. When the darker skinned girl approached, Kurt nearly fell out of his seat.

"Amanda?" He asked. She smiled and waved.

"Hi Kurt." He jumped out of the car and hugged her, whispering that he had missed her and another mushy things that Rogue didn't care to listen to.

"But you're not a mutant!" He whispered. "I mean…of course I want you to come to the institute…" The German boy started rambling, confused and his ex-girlfriend placed a slender finger over his lips.

"I'm coming to stay at the institute because some people knew I was in love with a mutant and they weren't very nice to me." He grinned and started hopping up and down and then stopped.

"You're in love with a mutant? Who?" Rogue's adopted brother's eyes filled with sadness. He hadn't moved on from Amanda. Kurt really hadn't wanted to move on from her, but it seemed now she had moved on from him.

"Oh, you know him. He's blue and fuzzy." She climbed into Scott's car, saying 'hi' to Kitty and Rogue. Rogue rolled her eyes at Kurt and turned her eyes to the other three.

"Ah'm Rogue." She held out a gloved hand and they each shook it.

"Sonia." Stated the girl with the turquoise hair, that was cascading over her in long thin braids.

"Andrew." The guy with the tattoos nodded and climbed into the car. Turning to the supermodel blonde girl, Rogue noticed she _really_ looked like a stereotypical model. _Barbie has hit the mutant world. _The girl smiled.

"I'm Pherma." She flipped her hair back and stepped into the car gracefully. Rogue raised an eyebrow and tried not to laugh.

Kitty and Kurt introduced themselves on the way home. They talked about powers and such. Sonia could turn herself into a tree, which Rogue thought was kind of neat. Andrew wasn't anything special, according to him. Just you know, super strength, speed, and he could translate any language. It was Pherma that was so very interesting.

"I give off these pheromones that attract single men to me." She casually stated. _Extremely casually_ _stated,_ Rogue considered.

"Wow. Do you, like, ever get a moment's peace?" Kitty asked. Rogue was driving, as to not kill anybody who they brought home from the train station.

Pherma laughed. "I'm pretty good at avoiding the guys. And just single guys, not ones who are married, coupled, or have met their soul mates. So hopefully, I'll be okay at the Xavier's."

The talk on the ride home was similar. Talking about where people were from, bands they liked, what they had been doing. When Rogue pulled into the mansion, everybody felt more comfortable with the people in the car.

Kurt carried Amanda's bags for her, to be all impressive. When Pherma walked in, a lot of eyes turned to her. _Poor girl. She must be so tired of it. _Xavier rolled in and introduced the new mutants.

"I would like to introduce Pherma, Andrew, Sonia, and I believe most of you have met Amanda." Kurt had his arm and tail wrapped around her possessively, but not having to worry because a good few eyes were on Pherma.

Kitty showed them all to rooms. Pherma, Amanda and Sonia were all sharing a room, so it was a quick trip. Sonia seemed quiet and shy, and Pherma was outgoing and talkative. Amanda was the same – polite, friendly and a general sweetheart.

"So this guy walks up to me and says 'girly, you look damn fine. I bet you'd look twice as good on my pillow tomorrow morning." Kitty rolled her eyes, smirking. "So what I did was I got him into the bathroom and got him to strip down, right? And then I nicely shoved him out into the club, naked, in front of everybody. Then I jumped out the window and threw his clothes in the trash and took off." Kitty burst out laughing as they reached the room on the third floor, where the Professor had insisted these three girls stay.

"Well, are you single?" Kitty asked. Pherma looked up and nodded.

"Yeah, but none of the guys here have a chance." Kitty raised an eyebrow, silently wanting an explanation. The new mutant didn't take the time to explain. Pherma tossed her blonde locks over her shoulder and dropped her luggage next to one of the beds. She was only staying with Sonia and Amanda until she had picked out a room from one of the adult wings. Sonia seemed to walk over the window and had half of her body stuck out it.

Kitty stuck her head through a wall to see Sonia scouting out of the roof. "What are you, like, up to?"

"Checking out the roof to see how much sun it gets." Sonia chuckled at the look of utter and total confusion that crossed Kitty's face. "I'm a tree. I need sunlight for energy, just like plants. So I like to go up on roofs and sunbathe. I always have a great tan, too." Sonia winked a sea green eye at Kitty and then climbed back into her new room. The girls braids flowed as she walked, and Kitty grinned. She did indeed have a great tan.

Dinner was served at 6:30, to give the four new house members time to settle. Storm had cooked, and of course there was enough food for everyone. During dessert, a few…more comical events had taken place.

"Bobby!" Jubilee cried, slamming her spoon down into her empty dish. Storm had made angel food cake that night – a soft sponge cake, topped with a huge mass of blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries and then whipped cream.

"What?" He said. The Iceman's eyes were clearly focused on Pherma, who was politely making conversation with Storm about what life had been like in Los Angeles.

"You won't stop staring at _her!_" Jubilee pointed angrily to Pherma. "And _I'm _your girlfriend!" Pherma and Storm's conversation halted as they turned to Jubilee and Bobby's argument.

"You know I'm not interested in her! I was staring off into space, Jubes! You know that!" He glared at her. And she glared back.

"As if! You were completely absorbed in Miss Supermodel! I'm _sorry_ not all of us look like we just jumped off a runway!"

"Jubes, you're beautiful! I don't want you on a runway, I want you here! Screw supermodels, I want you. We've been over this!" She crossed her arms and turned her back to him.

He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close to him. She resisted, but he moved against her and started whispering in her ear. He was singing softly, just enough so that Kitty –who had been next to Jubilee – could hear. It was their song, 'You and Me' by Lifehouse. Kitty smiled and returned to her ice cream as Jubilee's expression softened and she smiled at her boyfriend.

Amanda leaned over to Kurt. "Does that happen a lot?"

He smiled. "Almost every day." They laughed, and he reached for her hand under the table. She grinned at him. _I missed him so much, _she thought. _It's been far too long. _

Xavier cleared his throat, and everybody looked to the head of the table. "Now, the new recruits have a training session with Logan in the morning. Older X-Men have a schedule posted in their rooms as to when they're helping. Amanda, you are not expect to attend practice, but you are most welcome to watch. Scott, Jean and I are going to Hawaii in the morning to pick up the mutants who have been staying with Alex. I trust the mansion will be fine when we return, because we also expecting the Brotherhood to be arriving soon." A few widened eyes turned to the Professor. "We must remember, X-Men, that they are not our enemies. Because we need each other now. All mutants must band together, remember. So I expect you to treat each of them as allies, not enemies. Fighting will not be tolerated, and you will be punished for such actions. Am I understood?" Nods went around the room.

"Excellent. Good night, X-Men." And the Professor wheeled off.

Everybody stood and dishes got passed down the table. Jubilee and Bobby were on dish duty tonight, and Rogue had training with Logan. So she walked over to the elevator and pressed the down button which took her to area of the danger room that was used for sparring where she and Logan tried to work on her powers and controlling in the psyches.

He was already there when they got there. "Hey, Stripes. Just give me a minute." Logan had a cigar in his mouth, and Rogue grinned. It was the only area of the mansion where the Professor allowed Logan to smoke, and even then it was rare that Charles was accepting of his habits.

Soon, Logan and Rogue were sitting cross-legged, facing each other in the middle of the room. Rogue had her eyes closed and Logan was speaking slowly.

"Concentrate on Storm's psyche. Call it forth into your mind."

Blackness. That's all there really was, usually. I mean, sometimes it changed to show random bits of other dark colours, but mostly was blackness. And then, out of air, Storm appeared.

"Think about her powers. Think about her ability to fly. Concentrate on flying."

Storm reached out her hands and began to float in Rogue's mind. White swirls wrapped around the weather goddess' body. She roamed around the blackness freely – a little bit of light.

"She is inside of you. The power is inside you. Search for the power."

But there was just Storm, and the blackness. The Power was no where…it was too hard to see. She couldn't find it. Rogue pushed herself, looking around everywhere, and then studying Storm closer.

"Focus on the power."

The white swirls surrounding Storm's body as she flew around became stronger and began to almost glow.

"Bring the power to you."

Rogue called to it, called to the swirling power. She wanted the glow to surround her, too. She wanted to fly and be free like Ororo.

"Bring the power to you."

Ever slowly, the white light seemed to grown and expand, and started to flow towards Rogue. The darkness was expanding and her head was pounding – like somebody had tried to use her for their new drum set. The white and the darkness were swirling, swirling

Darkness and noise and light and silence…

Her green eyes flew open and she screamed, seeing her body suspended a good two feet off of the ground. Rogue fell suddenly, crashing into the mats, landing on her left arm with a large thud. Logan ran to her as the Southern Belle rolled over, clutching her arm.

"It's okay, Stripes. I don't expect you to have control this soon…" Those were the last words she remembered before blacking out.

Pherma walked up to Jubilee after dinner. The firecracker girl had been sitting in the Rec. Room, watching some television program Pherma had never seen in her life. Pherma sat down next to the younger girl, curling her feet under her.

"Can we talk for a second?" Jubilee nodded and turned the television off and faced the newer mutant resident to the house. "I wanted to tell you about my mutation. Because at dinner you seemed really upset when you thought Bobby was looking at me. I can't say whether he was or not, I just feel you should know." Jubilee inclined her head to one side, which Pherma took as a sign to continue.

She slowly explained about the pheromones and chemicals her body gave off. Jubilee became much more comfortable by the time Pherma finished.

"So you see, you can't blame Bobby…he's just responding to the chemicals. So don't have anymore fights on my account, okay? I can't stand it when people fight on my account."

The young Asian girl hugged the older mutant and got up and walked away, smiling. _Probably in search of her little boyfriend…_ The door bell sounded throughout the mansion. _More new mutants? _Pherma bounced up and headed in the direction of the door.

It didn't help much that she got lost twice and walked into three walls on her way there.

When Pherma finally reached the door, she saw Rogue, Kitty, Kurt and Logan staring at the four young boys in the door way.

"Who's this?" Pherma inquired.

"Pherma, meet the Brotherhood of Mutants."

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Thanks for reading guys, see you soon! Chapters 2 and 3 are already written, so I'll be posting those shortly. Please review and let me know you're reading!


	2. Of Conversations and Developments

Hey guys! I am back and very excited to say we are starting out with some great coupley scenes first off!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own marvel comics or the X Men. Please don't sue, we're just all lovers here, right?

And to start our day with some Tabietro!!

-x-

"Hi." He whispered softly from the door frame. When she saw him yesterday, she had run off and he hadn't seen her since. It seemed to take him forever just to walk up the stairs to her room today. Facing her seemed hard after so long.

She looked up from where she was, currently huddled in the windowsill. She murmured something, but he didn't hear it.

He was completely mesmerized. She had always been beautiful, but now. Oh man. She was absolutely drop dead gorgeous. Gone was the gold hair that stuck up and out from her pigtails, and it had been replaced with a new style of shoulder length waves that shined. Her worn blue jean coloured eyes sparkled with mischief even though a thick coat of sadness seemed mixed into them as well. Had it really been a year and a half since he'd seen her?

Pietro slowly moved towards the blonde mutant. His silver hair was a bit longer, but he felt the same as he had that day – like he forgot to bring his stomach with him.

"I was hoping we could talk for a few minutes." She numbly nodded and sat down on her bed. He was speaking slowly, it was easier for him when it was this important.

Minutes of tense silence passed. She seemed more comfortable with that. _I'd rather be uncomfortable with the silence then be hurt by the words, _was one of the few thoughts that went through her head. Her brain almost shut down the minute he walked into her room.

"Tabby…I wanted to explain about that night. I never really did." Tabby nodded.

"No, I suppose you didn't." That night had been so painful for both of them. She was supposed to meet him at a club. When she bounced down the steps into the sea of people, the first thing her eyes caught was the sight of her lover holding some woman who wasn't her.

"I don't know who that woman was." His gray eyes looked aside, focusing on the wall, the carpet, a poster, anything but to see the sadness in hers that he had caused. It made his heart sew itself together just so it could shatter again every time he saw her pain.

Tabby snorted, and he looked up. "Is that supposed to make me feel better?" He sighed.

"No, I guess not. Tabby…"

"Look." His eyes looked to hers, and they were full of sadness, but something else too. "I'm not mad about that anymore. I'm over it. I was a long time ago."

"Why didn't you come back then, Tabby? It's not like I moved on, cause if you noticed, babe, I'm really not over you. In fact-" she held a slender finger to his lips, and he quieted swiftly. The brief touch, so innocent, but it drove him insane all the same.

"I'm still upset with you. Just not over that." Tabby hugged herself, wishing now for a blanket, or a fire she could throw herself into. It was so damn painful to have Pietro here, this close, and not be with him. She had missed him so much, but he didn't…

"Then, why?" His voice was so quiet she barely heard it. She could tell he was lost and confused. His happy exterior was gone. The fast talking know-it-all arrogant ass was for others. Tabby knew him. Tabby knew his love of life, everything about him. He usually managed to speak slowly around her. Or, he used to manage.

"You didn't come after me." Gray eyes found blue ones. Both of them staring into the other's soul, seeing the hurt they had gone through because of the other. "I thought for so long that you'd just come and see me and explain and apologize, and want me back…but you never came." Tears were filling her eyes, she could barely see the speed-demon in front of her.

"I wanted to…oh, god, Tabby, I wanted to. I tried. I really did. But they kept telling me when you were ready to talk you'd come see me, or that someone would come see me, or something crazy like that. But all I wanted was to come and beg forgiveness. I can't live without you."

She got up and moved to the window sill again, curling up, hugging herself. "You must've learned. Because as far as I know, you've been without me for a year and a half."

"Tabby…" Pietro slowly moved over to her and cautiously wrapped his arms around her shoulders. When she leaned into his embrace, he moved them to her waist and held her against him tightly.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…" He whispered it into her ears, at least a million times, she thought. The blonde bomber buried her face into Pietro's chest, just crying against him while he held her. Tabitha silently thought a 'I forgive you' for every apology he whispered to her.

They sat like that for what felt like an hour to them both. An amazing hour, which he spent memorizing her all over again. The way her hair smelled, the way she fit into his arms so perfectly, the way her shoulders shifted around when she cried, and how she sniffled when she had been crying but didn't want to resume.

After a while, Tabby's tears had dried and she looked up into Pietro's eyes. He gave a small smile to her which she returned. She sat up slowly, her eyes never leaving his.

In a motion that seemed slow to one and fast to the other, she leaned forward and kissed him softly. It was just a peck, but it was the best kiss they'd shared yet, because of what it meant.

Pietro pulled her to a mirror and pulled something out of his pocket. When he told her she could open her eyes, Tabby had a gold chain around her neck. At the bottom of it was a little bomb, with the fuse lit. Tears spurted to her eyes as she touched it gingerly. She whirled around to look at him.

"It's beautiful."

"Like you."

"But…when?" Suddenly her eyes flashed. "Did you think you could buy me off?" He chuckled at her fiery nature, but hey, she was the queen of bombs after all.

"No, of course not." He backed up and sat down on her bed, his hands on her waist. Pietro prayed he'd never have to move them. "I bought it just before…that night. I saw it and thought of you and instantly knew it belonged around your neck." She smiled at him.

"Oh. Okay then."

Leaning down, Tabitha's lips met Pietro's. It started slow, and they just stayed like that for a while. But soon, it started to slowly escalate.

Memories were brought back to show their bodies really remembered each other perfectly-further proof they belonged together. She knew when to push and he knew when to pull and they were completely absorbed in each other.

I t was when he pulled her shirt off that she backed off and let go completely, a shocking realization hit her. Tabby pulled back.

"Pietro…we can't. Not now, it's too soon. I forgive you, but I'm not ready for us to go right back to where we were."

He nodded and tilted her chin up so their eyes met. "I understand. Take all the time you need." He kissed her forehead and she jumped off him, running down the stairs.

Nobody even bothered to ask why she was shirtless.

Pherma hit a button on her C.D. player and started dancing around the kitchen to the beat. It wasn't a particularly fast one, but it was a good one all the same. She hummed lightly, and opened the fridge, looking inside.

Pherma had met the brotherhood the day before. Well, the three of them who were the brotherhood anyway. Four men had stood in the door. A brunette, a silver-haired boy (who she was dying to ask about what shampoo he uses), a strange boy who started hopping like a frog, and a guy with dark hair who looked like he'd be severely beaten. Lance, Pietro, Todd and Pete Wisdom.

They were a unique bunch, certainly. She had shrugged. Frog boy was attracted to her, and wasn't that exciting. Pherma sighed, tossing her blonde hair over her shoulder and putting random fruits on the counter.

"Do you always wiggle your ass when you stand at the fridge?" A gruff voice called out. She stood up straight and looked at him, giving him the once over.

He wasn't bad looking. His hair almost seemed to form two points on his head and he was certainly well muscled, almost like those scary men on steroids, only…it suited him more.

"Do you always stare at the ass of the woman who's in the kitchen at the present moment?" Pherma smiled and pulled out the blender, plugging it into the wall.

He raised an eyebrow, clearly not half as amused as she was. He took a seat at the island in the middle of the gigantic kitchen and started reading the news paper.

After a few moments, he finally grumbled something at her. "Who the hell are you, anyway?"

She grinned. Pherma loved it when she got to play around with the ones who weren't attracted to her.

"I'm Pherma. And besides easy on the eyes, you are?" Flirting was like second nature to her, after breathing.

He nearly choked. On what, she didn't know. She just started casually chopping up the fruits she had pulled out –peaches, strawberries and bananas.

"Logan." He grumbled.

"Aw, how cute. Logan. It suits you. Is your mutant ability grumpy-ness?" Pherma leaned over the island, well aware of how low cut her shirt was and what this position did to her chest. But it was more fun to know he barely glanced at her breasts, but that he _did _glance.

"Because yours is so blatantly obvious. Is not being able to wear proper clothing part of it? It's a school, not a bleeding dance floor."

Pherma grinned. He was either taken, a telepath or a man who had met his soul mate. And her bet was on door number three.

"I give off pheromones that attract men and make them desire to do anything I want." The blonde mutant turned around, throwing her fruit into the blender and some ice. She hurt a faint grumble from behind her, and the sound of a newspaper page being turned.

"Oh really? That must be lots of fun for you." She grinned and pressed the blender button, blocking out whatever it was he said next. Probably some little quip he thought was clever.

When she finally turned around and poured her smoothie into a glass, Logan was glaring daggers at her. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

Logan growled, his knuckles tightening around the paper. "I said, you must love all the attention you get around here if you just attract guys from everywhere."

She shrugged. "Not really. I mean, I only attract some of them. The ones who are coupled up, or strong telepaths, or if they've met their soul mates, my pheromones don't work on them. Other then that…guys'll chase anything in a short skirt. Gits." She rolled her eyes at the guys in question, who weren't really in the room.

"Oh, so now you're against guys?"

"Damn straight."

"You just seduce them."

"Not if I can help it."

"Excuse me?" She rolled her eyes at his ignorance and sighed. After a few moments, Pherma broke the silence, finishing off her smoothie and refilling her glass.

"So, who is she?" Logan raised an eyebrow. "Your soul mate. I can tell you and Ororo aren't getting it on every night, and you aren't going gaga over me. So fess up."

"My soul mate?" He grinned and got this faraway look in his eyes. "She's a beauty. Looks damn fine in leather. 'Long as I change the oil and keep her nice and clean, everything's smooth between me and her."

Pherma grinned. "What? You got a Ferrari in the garage?" Logan snorted and shook his head. "Oh…a bike man. My kinda ride." Straddling a stool, she tossed her hair behind her-_it always gets in the freaking way- _and grinned at him, propping her elbows up on the island and placing her chin in her hands. "What are you driving?"

At that moment, she had tried to lean forward but instead she stumbled and fell flat off the stool. _For crying out loud…_Climbing back up, she saw Logan smirk at her. "2005 Triumph Tiger. What are you driving, girly?" He asked.

"Harley. 883 Sportster. Did you really suspect a girl like me would be seen on anything else?"

-x-

Rogue sat in the middle of the Rec. room floor, flipping through channels. Nothing was on TV. Nothing was ever on TV on Sundays. It was just plain annoying.

Since she had come to the institute, Rogue had obtained and gone through exactly three pairs of pajamas. First the orange ones- well, they weren't very nice, but they covered everything. Then came cotton navy blue ones that were comfy, stylish _and_ covering. But finally, she had found the right fit with these black pajamas.

Logan had gotten them for her at Christmas. It was a black silk nightgown that had a little bit of lace across the top. It came with a jacket that covered her arms too, and the whole thing drifted down to her ankles. Sleeping was so much more pleasurable when you had excellent pajamas.

She turned the TV off and tossed the remote control onto the coffee table and closed her eyes, sighing.

"Were you hoping to be alone, or would you mind a spot of company from a fine gentlemen and a crackpot?" A voice quipped. She opened her eyes to see Lance and Pietro in the door. Clearly it was Pietro who spoke, since Lance was now smacking him upside the head.

"Ah'd love some company from two such fine gentlemen as yourselves." Pietro speeded over and sat down next to her, and Lance hopped over the couch to sit on her other side, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

Rogue laughed. Since Apocalypse's defeat, she had started to go see the Brotherhood more and more. She had realized how much she missed them, and even though she loved everybody at the institute, she still had friends at the Boarding house.

The bridges had been repaired. It had hurt everybody when Rogue left –she missed the guys, but was too betrayed by Mystique. So it took many nights of ice cream and CSI reruns with a few poker games thrown in to fix their friendships.

Rogue hadn't seen the boys in a few months –Magneto had funded a trip to Paris for them all as a sort of apology for being, well, evil. They were there for about two months, and got back a few weeks ago, but she hadn't seen them since before they left.

"Well, we were walking down the street…"

"He put the celery WHERE?"

"What was Toad doing with that model?"

"And you had a thong because…"

"Sorry. He told Logan to take Ororo and…"

"So Pietro's walking down the street, and this model chick comes up to him and starts speaking French and he just gives her this look and says 'Je suis perverti. Si vous plais laissez-moi saisir votre bout.' Rogue spit out her juice at that.

"Pietro! I can't believe you said that to her!" He looked at her and shrugged.

"I was trying to say 'I'm lost, please let me use your map.'" Rogue snorted, and her pop shot out her nose, and then she resumed laughing.

"Do you even know what you said to her?" He looked at her, shaking his head. "You said 'I'm perverted. Please let me grab your ass.'" Lance fell over laughing.

"No wonder she slapped you!" They continued telling stories of how Pietro's French led him astray in Paris for another hour, Rogue smiling at their horrible luck.

They calmed down, finding a CSI rerun to watch for a little while. Finally, after a bowl of popcorn, Rogue asked.

"Where's Freddy?" Pietro and Lance's head dropped down. "He wasn't with you guys when you arrived…and he isn't in any of your Paris stories.."

"Blob…died." Pietro whispered. Rogue felt her eyes tear up slightly. She hadn't really liked Blob, but she didn't want him to _die, _and she still knew him.

_No…_

"No! Freddy can't die! He was invulnerable…even Logan couldn't hurt him…"

"Freddy had a heart-attack two weeks before we left for Paris. Magneto said we needed to get out the house and get away from the whole life for a little while to help recover. He uh…we couldn't have done anything. "

They sat in silence and finally Rogue stood up, putting the popcorn bowl back. "Ah'm gonna go to bed, guys. Ah'll see you in the morning. G'night.." She wandered upstairs slowly, thinking about what had happened.

_ It's not fair. Freddy shouldn't have died…he wasn't that old...why does the world have to hate mutants when we didn't do anything to them._

-x-

Pete walked into the library, seeking a bit of peace. _I bloody well deserve it, after what I've put up with in the last week, _he thought.

He was beaten, bruised, sore and generally blue –and that wasn't just his hair colour.

Wisdom had explored this mansion top to bottom and even the bleeding danger room had ticking hormone bombs in it.

So of course, the one place he figured no sane teenager would be –a room full of books – had a girl in it.

Her brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and she was chewing on a pen in an absent minded fashion. Baby pink converse shoes were propped up on the table.

"Bloody hell. Is there anywhere in this place where they're aren't a lot of sodden teenagers?!" He yelled.

The brunette looked up. "Try the danger room at three am." Kitty resumed reading, but looked up again when he snorted.

"Why on earth am I here? No smoking, no drinking, hormone bombs everywhere…" Kitty laughed.

He raised a blue-ish eyebrow at her. "Mr. Logan said something like that once."

"Mr. Logan? Are you twelve?" he quipped.

"I'm nineteen, and you shouldn't be talking. You act like you're fifty – so grumpy about teenagers."

"I'm only twenty-six."

"So go hit on Pherma, like everybody else." He grabbed a chair and turned it backwards so he could sit on it.

"Got a name?"

"Kitty Pryde. You're Pete Wisdom." He grabbed the book she had been reading, glancing through it.

She reached for it, but it was beyond her reach. "Kitty? What kind of name is that?"

"It's a great name. Give me back my book, Mr. Wisdom."

"Just call me Wisdom, Pryde, screw the 'Mr.'. And what kind of book is this? It's all…romance and fluff. Relationships don't work like that."

"Of course they don't." Kitty glared at the man and snatched her book from him, settling back into her chair. "Because men are too stupid. They don't realize that women don't work the same as them and that women respond better to creativity then laziness. Not my fault your gender are a bunch of dumb asses."

"Hey!" He growled. "I'll have you know that our gender are not idiots, Pryde. We just like to be laid back, and _you_ women always have to try and get us to work bloody harder. Not our fault you're so damn demanding."

"We're not demanding. Men are lazy and don't put an effort into seduction. So therefore we have to read about fake men and wish that real men were like this. Now, _Wisdom_, if you'll excuse me."

She picked up her book and walked out of the library, leaving him alone to think.

"Damn. Gotta love buggin' a girl who's got a fire."

He shook his head and looked around. "AHA!" He jumped in the air and gave a little whoop. _A room of me and no teenagers…now that's my style._

-x-

**A/N: **Thanks for coming all, I'll see you next time! Don't forget to tip your waitress and review!

**Jan****uary 25, 2008:** Hey guys, just updating this chapter. I changed Pete Wisdom's age, because as I was writing him in future chapters, I realized that he needed to be younger then I had originally listed him. Just changed a few details here and there, is all. Enjoy.

**March 30, 2008:** Just quick updates to spacing and indents and tabs.

Through Darkness and Light /x\


	3. Of Focus and Innunendos

A/N: Guys, I'm sorry, I am. This was in the works for a long time, and I hope you enjoy it. A bit more humour in this chapter, and some more training for Rogue. The plot is thickening, and I assure you, it IS going to be updated. I've started Chapter 4. I promise, I'm staying with this.

---

"Bobby."  
"I'm trying Jubes, I am!"

Pherma inclined her head as her hearing picked up on the two voices. She walked over to the room where the voices were coming from and pressed her ear against the door.

"None of the other guys I've done this with have had problems."

"You're comparing me to them? That's great to know you're comparing me to them whenever we're together."

"Bobby…come on. Can you just focus, please?"

Pherma grinned, starting to catch on. She waved Kitty over and started listening in, covering her mouth to prevent giggles.

"Just get it up already!"  
"You're not helping."

"I didn't realize you were going to have _this_ much of a problem."

Kitty got Rogue to listen in, and others were noticing. Rogue, Pherma, Tabby, Kitty, and Amara were listening in at the moment, but others were around them.

"Okay, just concentrate on it."

"I'm _trying_ to."

"Look! There! You got it!"

"Yeah. Thanks _so_ much, Jubes."

"Okay, now just lift me up a little more…"

"I'm doing the best I can. You're really not helping."

"Bobby…just shut up and push already."

Giggles went around a few of the girls. Rogue was grinning and Pherma was just looking evil. A crowd was gathered around –some of the Brotherhood were even there. It was a fabulous thing. A bunch of teenagers listening to two teenagers while they seemed to be having… problems.

"We've done this before, why can't you do it now?"  
"Jubes. You are really making this very difficult for me. Cut me some slack."

"Well, try taking it out and putting it back in. That usually works."

"Must you insist on calling my bulb 'it'? It's demoting."

"Bobby, you realize you just referred to it as your bulb."

"Well, yeah."

"Okay, wait, there, you've got it! It's in!"

"No…it's not in properly, Jubes. I can tell."

"Well just jiggle it a bit then or something. Use your other hand to help."

"Not working. Any other suggestions?"

"This is retarded. How can this not be working? It's never happened before!"

"I don't know, Jubes. I'm sorry. I know you wanted to do this today."

"It's alright. We can just ask Mr. McCoy what went wrong later. He understands these things."

"No, wait a second, I got it!"

"Yes, that's it! That's it! Yes!"

"You don't have to scream, Jubes."

"Bobby, you're ruining my excitement."

By this time, half the mansion was there and collapsed in laughter, listening

to the conversation.

"Bobby, you can get it in a bit farther, honey."

"Just let me push for another minute."

"Well, maybe if you come from a different angle…"

"We're doing this my way, Jubes."

"Oh, fine. I'll just sit here, then."

Pherma grinned. "Eh, it's no fun when the guy is the only one who gets to play." More giggles from everybody on the floor.

Logan walked up the stairs. "What the hell is going on?" He growled. The laughter stopped. He walked over to the door and listened to a minute. Pherma was the only one who hadn't moved, she was completely unfazed by his temper. After all, he couldn't hurt her. If she had to, she could just increase the amount of pheromones she was giving off and then no man was safe from her.

"Bobby, that feels right…"

"Jubes, honey, I want this to be right. It's no good to us if it's not. And you

said you wanted us to do this now."

"It can wait, though, if we can't get it right now…oh, god, that's it, you've got it, right there, Bobby you've got it!"

Logan looked like he was gonna kill someone. In fact, he shot out his claws and cut the door off.

Only to reveal Bobby and Jubilee standing in the middle of the room. Trying to screw in a new light bulb.

Rogue and Kitty were walking through the wooded area by the house, talking casually.

"Ah don't know, Kit. It's like…like Logan and the Professor want me to get control of something I have no control over."

"Did you have to go for flying Lessons with Ororo?" Kitty imitated the gentle African Goddess' voice. "Be intangible…let the wind carry you and you can fly, too, my child.' And I'm all 'No way, lady. Thanks but no. I'm good on the ground!"

"You mean dangerous enough on the ground." Rogue rolled her eyes.

"Hey!" Kitty yelled.

"So…anymore new recruits roll in today?" Rogue leaned against a tree and crossed her arms.

"Not that I know of. Hope none of them are like that Mr. Wisdom guy!"

The Southern Bell raised her eyebrow.

"You've talked about him enough in the last few days. I think Miss Kit Kat likes him."

"Please, Rogue, the guy's an ass."

"Such harsh language."

"Hey!"

Kitty crossed her arms and blushed, and Rogue rolled her eyes. Suddenly, Kitty's eyes grew wide and she screamed.

"ROGUE! That tree…it's MOVING!" Rogue jumped up and away from the tree. The willow tree she had been leaning against wasn't moving at all. In fact, it was steady as ever.

"Got you." Kitty giggled. Rogue grinned and shook her hand.

"Now Kit, is when I hurt you."

The two girls began chasing each other and laughing, neither actually intending to cause harm to the other.

When they were long gone and out of sight, the willow tree that had been 'moving' according to Kitty slowly transformed into a girl. She sighed.

_One day,_ Sonia promised herself,_ I won't have to do this anymore._

Sonia began to walk away when she realized her feet were not mobile. She looked down, only to see that her feet were implanted in the ground the way her roots had been. "Shit." She whispered and began to tug at her feet.

Tabby and Amara were sitting on the couch watching CSI when the doorbell rang. They blonde bombshell shrugged at the southern belle and they both leaned back so the couch flipped over, rolled out and headed for the door.

However, when they opened the door, they had not expected what they saw.

"G'day Sheila's!"

A Goth was leaned against the door frame, with her waist captured by the arm of an orange haired Australian cheerful looking fellow who was flicking a lighter.

Pyro and the Scarlet Witch were standing at the doorway of Xavier's Institute- wrapped around each other.

Wanda walked in, her combat boots trudging on the rug. John followed her, looking around, still flicking his lighter. Wanda was wearing that same old trench coat, and still had various ankh jewelry on. The only difference in the Scarlet Witch since the last time Amara or Tabby had seen her was she had grown her hair out just past her shoulders.

"So, where's the guy we talk to about picking up room and board?" The princess was a little stunned to see them, but Tabby jumped right up.

"Wanda! Girl, it's been a while since I saw you! Damn you're looking better! And why do you have that little hottie wrapped around yourself?"

_Professor. There are two new mutants here._ Rogue thought out loud. Living for a good few years with a bunch of telepaths made it very easy to think louder when you wanted to.

The Professor, Logan and Ororo came into the front hall. "Hello Wanda, John. Welcome to the institute. I have prepared rooms for the two of you since you sent me the email, Wanda, that you would be arriving shortly."

"Hang on, rooms? As in plural? That doesn't work." John said, moving his arm to Wanda's shoulders, pulling her against his body. She complied without resistance.

"We don't have co-ed bedrooms here, John." Wanda glared and crossed her arms.

"Maybe for kids. What's your policy on married folks?"

Three pairs of eyebrows (Logan's, Amara's and Tabby's) shot up, and mouths dropped open. "_Married!?"_

Wanda and John grinned at each other and Wanda held out her hand to show off the 24 carrot diamond surrounded by six tiny black opals on her ring finger and grinned.

"Me and the bird got hitched 'bout a year ago, when we was touring down under. Kind of an elopement, cause next we went to Barcelona."

"Wow. You actually got married. Way to go girlfriend!" Tabby ran up to Wanda and hugged her tightly, to Wanda's utter disgust. Tabby ignored Wanda's stiffness, but backed off when Wanda's hands started to glow blue.

"I suppose since the two of you are legally married, you may stay in a room together. The double rooms are on the top floor. You may choose one and inform me as to which number your room is." The Professor folded his hands, watching Logan glare at the young couple while Ororo smiled pleasantly.

The young couple walked upstairs, along with Tabitha and Amara, chatting away. John flicked his lighter the whole way, making soft clicking noises. Ororo would later discover three different burn marks on the walls.

"So the Firebug and the Witch got hitched. The world has become a scary place." Logan sighed and walked towards the garage, while Storm and Xavier chuckled softly at his expense.

Logan sighed as he walked into his room at the end of the night. He'd patrolled, checking to make sure everyone was in the right room and tucked in and quiet and the like. He wasn't even going within fifteen feet of the "newlyweds" room, because honestly, ignorance was bliss.

At that thought, he grunted, stripped down and climbed into bed.

About half an hour later, he shot up at the sound of footsteps coming down the hall and towards his bedroom. He shot his claws out and walked up to his door, standing behind it. When a figure opened the door and stepped in his room, he grabbed the person and pressed his adamantium claws against their neck.

"Alright bub, what the hell are you doing?" He sniffed. "Pherma! What the _hell_ are you doing in my room?"

The younger mutant sighed. "Let me go, Logan. Frog boy is hopping around in my room, trying to kiss me while calling me 'Sweetums'. I figured you were the only guy who could suck it up and let me share his bed without trying to make a move on me so I can get some actual frog-free sleep."

"That's a hell of a long explanation for 2 AM, girly."

"Girly indeed. Can we just go to bed now?" Logan flipped on the lights and raised one eyebrow at her negligée that left little to the imagination.

"I didn't agree to shacking it up with you."

Pherma grinned and went and sat on the bed. "We're not getting sexy, Claw-boy. We're sleeping. If _you_ can't keep your hands to yourself, I'll leave. I just want to go where Froggy can't follow me and keep trying to seduce me." She shivered. "Eww...frog."

"_My_ hands to _my_self? What about you?" Pherma scoffed and looked Logan up and down.

"Oh please." Logan rolled his eyes and climbed into bed.

"Fine. Just for tonight, girly."

Pherma slid under the sheets and tossed her hair around. She reached for a pillow and realized there was only one pillow on Logan's bed. The golden haired temptress grinned and stole it, folding it in half and snuggling down to sleep.

She smiled softly at the Wolverine's growl when he realized she had stolen his pillow.

Charles Xavier and Ororo sat on the balcony, a soft breeze about their feet, picking up leaves and such. Ororo was hovering a meditative state.

"He's on his way, Charles. The others will be coming with them, now that he's tracked them all down. They'll trickle in one by one, Charles. And I still don't want him here." The silver haired weather witch said softly.

Xavier nodded to the students slowly walking out around the grounds. Amara and Tabitha were bouncing about, Boom Boom letting off small bombs every now and then, making the leaves pop up in the air. Amara would then light them on fire, and they'd laugh and twirl and do cartwheels.

_Its alright Ororo. I've been in constant contact with Eric and he assures me that a united peaceful front of mutants is the best course of action for now. _Xavier shivered lightly, which Ororo saw out of the corner of her eye and the temperature around them rose about three degrees, and the wind ceased as Ororo floated slowly back to the ground, taking a seat on a bench next to the Professor's wheel chair.

"Ororo, we're working on a plan, Eric and I. We're going to have to assist mutant's in getting here – travel from now on won't be easy, especially for those whose gifts take a physical presence, like Kurt or Scott."

Ororo sighed and moved all of her silver hair to one side of her face. "Charles, mutants are being attacked everywhere. You'd better hurry up with your plan – there's a lot of mutants out there who need our help, and who can't get here on their own."

Charles smiled and folded his hands together, resting his chin on his fingers. "Of course Ororo. I know, I know."

Charles turned to Ororo and looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Did you know, Pherma slept in Logan's bedroom last night?" Ororo raised her eyebrows and the two 'mature' adults began to gossip lightly.

Rogue grunted as she and Logan meditated in the Danger room. Everyone else was at dinner. And she was grumpy from being deprived of food.

"Focus! Rogue, I'm over here. Stop thinking about your stomach, you don't need it! It wants food, it doesn't need it. You _need_ control and now it's time to learn the difference."

Rogue looked up at the grumpy man. "The difference between want and need? I think I figured that out before, Logan." He bopped her on the head. "Ow!"  
"No, you think you know. But the difference now is, you're going to know you know. Now, get up." He was already standing and moved into the center of the room. They were in light sport clothes, easy to move around in. Logan had bought Rogue all kinds of weird 'training' clothing. Sports pants, t shirts, sport bras, new different types of gloves, and some more random clothing – evening dresses, a motor biking jacket, 3 pairs of sunglasses, a couple of hats, and 2 pairs of black shoes that looked a little big on her feet. Rogue stood and tied her hair back, and only her white bangs hung in her face still.

She made a motion to take off her gloves but Logan stopped her. "It would be good for you to take your gloves off at the beginning of the fight, but we're not using powers right now. No powers, just needs, okay? Only do something if you _need _to do it."

_Snkt. _The sound of Logan's claws was common to Rogue by this point in her stay at the mansionDanger room sessions had allowed her to be fighting by Logan's side three times a day, first thing in the morning for the past several years – she no longer slept in on Sundays.

Logan charged at her quickly and furiously, drawing back his fist and lunging his claws forwards, aimed dead straight at Rogue's throat. She ducked and rolled, and pulled around behind him. Logan stopped and glared at her.

"Why did you do that?" He asked, sighing and he slowly retracted his claws.

"Because you were going to skewer me like I was one of last week's barbeque foods!" She shouted, obviously irritated at the stupid question.

"How do you know I would have hit you?" He asked, quite calm and ignoring her anger.

"Well Logan, it might have to do with the fact that you don't miss. Ever." Rogue glared and tugged on her ponytail. Her hair had been growing longer, and she wasn't fully decided if she liked it.

"Wrong. Look, Stripes, the thing is that you have to learn the difference between want and _need_. You say you know it, but you don't. Give me your hand – take your glove off first."

Logan took her arm and swiftly released one claw and scratched straight across her palm, holding it firmly. He was feeling a slight drain.

"Now, focus Stripes – no, focus!" He shouted at her as she started to try and pull away. "Do you need to heal this?"

Rogue stared at her hand as the blood slowly dripped in a straight line down around to the sides, between her fingers. Logan squeezed her hand tighter. She nodded.

"NO. Stripes, you don't. You won't die if this doesn't heal in the next ten seconds. So concentrate on your powers – you do _not_ need mine. Focus on the need. Reject my powers. You don't need them, and right now that means you don't want them." Logan was squeezing her palm incredibly tight, and her cut was slowly sealing lightly.

Then he jerked on her palm and the skin that had been reforming on her hand ripped and she growled lightly.

Rogue was trying to concentrate, really. Her hand hurt, mind you. And so she closed her eyes, and tried a technique that Logan was trying to ingrain on her mind.

_I do not want his power. I do not want that power. I do not want that power._ She chanted the mantra in her mind, trying to hone her powers to reject his abilities.

His memories were flowing into her mind. The way Pherma smelled last night. This morning's coffee and tai chi ritual.

"Focus!" He shouted again. It disrupted her every time, but it stopped the memory flow momentarily.

_I do not want his power._ Flashes of his memory – his thoughts from today's training session clicked in Rogue's mind. _No, I do not need his power._

And suddenly, for one moment everything stopped. Her cut did not heal, his memories did not become her own, and the damn was held back.

Just as the flow had stopped, unfortunately, Rogue felt strained beyond belief, rejecting her powers. And so, when she collapsed the ground, it was so startling that Logan barely caught her.

"Stripes? Come on, recover. Stay conscious, for god's sakes." He grumbled at her. She could smell the cigar smoke on his breath.

"Logan?" She winced. Her head was throbbing, a few of her psyche's screaming at her.

"Yeah, Stripes?"

"Why was Pherma in your bed last night?"

---

I felt good ending the chapter there. Whoot! For passing my 10 000 word count. Chapter 4 in the works...enter the Acolytes, including our most favourite Cajun...

See ya!

Through Darkness and Light /x\


	4. Of the Old and the New

**Disclaimer:**As always, the X-Men Evolution series is not owned by me and the characters are not owned by me, either – or at least, the relevant characters are not mine. Without further adieu...

**Edit:** This is the March 30, 2008 update. I'm adding indents and better spacing and divisions, because although I put them in on the original draft, is kind enough to remove them for me. So enjoy the easier-to-read-and-follow version of Chapter 4! And as always, feedback is love.

-x-

Rogue was rubbing her sore arms when she got back to her room, and she closed the door and sighed contentedly. When the mansion had been renovated, Kit had moved down the hall into a room with Jubilee. The Professor had asked that Rogue be given a private room.

Rogue shivered lightly. Her arms were covered, but her window was open.

She moved across the room to close the window, and she grunted as she pushed it down – it seemed like every muscle in her body was crying for bed.

"Well,_chère_, you look like you need one of Remy's patented massages." Rogue spun around, and did a quick roundhouse kick to the side where the sound of her attacker was.

Her foot was caught and the pair spun to the floor, Rogue on the bottom. She wrapped her legs around the waist of her attacker and pulled hard, rolling over so she was on top, grabbing at his arms and finally realizing who she was sparring with.

"Chére Remy knew we had an attraction but did not think you would act so soon." Rogue glared and punched at Remy's face, but he ducked and scooted right under her body, and flipped her over from behind and pinned her down against the floor.

As much as Rogue squirmed, Remy held fast and didn't let her get away. He seemed to be enjoying her wiggling.

"No worries, _chère._ Remy will gladly hold you here. Remy is glad to see that you are not the type of girl who just sits and enjoys, heh?" Rogue stopped struggling and Remy climbed off her. He offered her a hand up; she rejected it.

She quickly pushed herself to her feet and backed a few feet from the Cajun. She took one glove off, glaring, and held her hand in front of her threateningly.

"Cajun, if ya don't back the hell away from me Ah'll drain you into a coma and then have the professor kick you outta my head!" Rogue growled. Being intimidating came naturally to Rogue, after many years of tormenting school boys and younger mutants at the mansion.

"Now now, be nice to Remy. He just came to check up on his _chère._Remy's missed you, you know." Gambit backed up and leaned against her closed window.

"Well Ah haven't missed you, so get the hell out so Ah can sleep." Rogue was mentally making a list of things to do tomorrow: get a lock on her window; stronger lock on her door; make Logan improve the mansion security systems...

"No worries, Rogue, you and Remy are going to be spending lots more time together 'soon as he moves in. See you soon, _chère_.." He opened the window and climbed back out swiftly and Rogue sighed angrily as she walked to the window and shoved it closed. The window pane shook with how hard she pushed on it, but she barely noticed.

She walked over to her desk and opened the main drawer. She pulled out the false bottom and tucked a few strands of white and crimson hair behind her head. Her hair was getting longer and longer these days, and Rogue couldn't be bothered to cut it. It was just hair, after all.

She sorted through a few personal items that were dusty and old. Just basic things that she didn't tell anybody about, or look at. Except for when she really needed to. A picture of Cody, some jewelery her foster mother had given her..and then, at the very bottom, she found what she was looking for.

It had been long over two years since she'd bothered to pull out the Queen of Hearts that Remy LeBeau had left in her hand while standing on the shores of Blood Moon Bayou. Rogue couldn't figure out why she kept it. She still didn't understand, but perhaps it was just a memory of the experience. She had all but forgotten about the card until that damn swamp rat had broken into her bedroom tonight.

She angrily threw the card back in the drawer and put everything back with gentle precision.

It was a stupid card. Just a stupid card. It didn't mean anything.

And Gambit didn't mean anything. She had better things to do then to be bothered by a stupid Cajun. And so she wouldn't think about him any more. And that was that.

-x-

Kitty cracked her knuckles and raised her blade in front of her, analyzing the problem. She bit her lip and inhaled slowly, trying to clear her mind.

She pushed the knife down slowly and carefully concentrated on chopping the carrots in front of small pieces. She hadn't cut herself yet slicing up several vegetables for the evening salad. It was her turn to make dinner, which wasn't often. Kitty was more then aware of how many people hated her cooking, and how bad it was.

It made her more determined to become better at it. She didn't understand how she could be good at chemistry and bad at cooking. It made no logical sense.

Kitty figured it was time to go back to the basics. So for tonight, she was preparing spaghetti, sauce, and a salad. The shadowcat stopped to wipe the sweat off her brow; she was praying to every deity she had ever heard of that this meal would turn out alright.

"I'm impressed." An English accent came from behind her. She whirled around, holding the knife up to threaten whoever interrupted her intense concentration. And there stood Pete Wisdom.

"And what is so impressive, Mr.Wisdom?" The younger girl growled at him. She wasn't in the mood for his stupid antics; she had a meal to prepare and she would not, _could not_, screw it up.

"Well, I've never seen anyone light spaghetti sauce on fire before." Kitty was confused for a moment, but when he looked pointedly at where her spaghetti sauce was steaming and in fact, on fire, she screamed and ran over to grab the pot off the stove.

"Damn it all to hell and back!" Kitty cried out. She started cussing under her breath as she moved the pot into the sink to put out the fire and wash out the now useless sauce.

"Didn't think you had the smarts to swear like that, Cat." She turned the tap on and let the water run into the pot.

"Cat? I'm no animal Wisdom, but I'm sure you'll find one if you bothered to look in a mirror. If you'll excuse me, I'm trying to make dinner." He snorted and ran a hand through his hair and moved closer to the counters to look at the dinner she had prepared.

"Trying? Pryde, you've outright failed. Spaghetti is as basic as dinner gets and kid, you just lit it on fire." He moved around the kitchen slowly and produced a pot, a handful of tomatoes, some spare ingredients. Kitty looked at him curiously.

"What are you doing? It's my night to cook. You're probably not even on the schedule yet." He nodded.

"Maybe, but I'd like to eat tonight without having to be sick afterwords. And if that means I'm going to have to teach you how to cook, then I'm going to do it, damn all."

Kitty blinked, in shock. He started giving instructions. When the English mutant noticed she wasn't following them, he waved a hand in her face.

"Wisdom to Pryde." Kitty snapped to. "We gonna do this or what?" She nodded and this time, he gave his instructions slower, to bother her, but she was too busy trying to perfect them that she didn't notice.

-x-

Rogue was hungry. Again. She was missing dinner. Again. Though Kitty cooked, so perhaps that wasn't as bad as she was thinking it was right now.

Her stomach growled violently. Maybe it was that bad.

She and Logan were, once again, meditating. Today's exercise was much different then her usual. She was only allowed to use her mind for today's challenge.

"Today, we're going to focus on channeling people. Instead of channeling their powers, I want you to try and channel their personality. So instead of thinking about Scott's laser vision, I want you to think about Scott. Deal? So when I say a name, just think about that person, and we'll see what happens." He was being gentle with her. The numerous bruises she had acquired over the last week of floating and falling or getting stuck in the floor or bouncing rays off other things was wearing on her body. It embarrassed her to be treated special, or for him to go easy on her, but her body couldn't take any more torment so she had to accept it.

Logan sat a few feet from her, watching her closely. She was crossed-legged and breathing steadily.

"Jean." Rogue started to think about Jean. She was thinking about how the red head got what she wanted. Rogue didn't have thoughts for Scott anymore, because Scott was so in love with Jean that everything regarding him was pointless anyways. She was the only thing he ever thought about was little perfect Jean. Perfect Jean who hugs everybody and laughs and sings and got to go to college and who has parents and...

"ROGUE!" Logan cried out. She opened her eyes from her meditative state to find she was floating several feet above the air. She let out a gasp and started to plummet down, barely hearing Logan's "CONTROL!" that he screamed at her in an angry fashion.

She closed her eyes and focused on the fact that she did not, at all costs, want to hit the ground. She needed to not hit the ground.

And suddenly, she stopped.

Rogue peeled one gloved hand away from her eyes to see that she had stopped, mid air, her face mere inches from the ground. She blinked her green eyes twice, curious that she was floating.

She stopped to think if she could raise herself back up again.

She concentrated on Jean again. On how Jean could just lift herself and fly and how Jean had perfect control of her powers that didn't scare people away and...

And as Rogue again became jealous of Jean Grey, she started spinning. "Ah!" She started spinning faster and faster in the air.

Rogue thought as hard as she could about how she wanted to stop and stay still. She thought about a tree, about how she could be a tree. Trees didn't spin – she would like that.

However, no matter what Rogue thought about, she continued to spin faster and faster until she felt as though she would have combusted from merely spinning so quickly.

She crashed into the ground with a thud. Logan had tackled her from the air into the ground to stop her from spinning.

Her mind swam and her body lurched. She crawled away from Logan slowly and dry heaved her lack of dinner into the corner. Promptly following being sick, she crawled half a foot away and collapsed into darkness.

-x-

Logan and Professor Xavier in the medical bay, watching over Rogue from behind glass as Hank performed routine blood sampling, and tests to see how she was doing. The screen monitoring her brain waves showed that she was agitated, and uneasy. Clearly there was turmoil happening internally with her psyches.

"She's not ready for the new mission, Chuck. Stripes needs more time. You can't put her out there if crap like this is going on."

"You know as well as I do Logan, that Rogue is going to be one of the few that are most needed. And that is why you are going to have to shift into field training, immediately. In fact, I think they should all start, not just Rogue." Charles folded his hands and leaned his chin against his fingers, his gaze locked on Rogue. Her breathing was erratic and unstable, and it worried him. Dr. McCoy had great faith that Rogue would make a full recovery once the psyches calmed down a bit.

The taller mutant growled, and added a few comments under his breath. "I hardly think that field training is going to save Stripes when her powers decide to go haywire in the middle of a reconnaissance mission, but then, she could just suck the information out of other people and do further damage to her brain."

The professor chuckled. Logan turned and glared at him, finally taking his eyes off Rogue.

"I assure you, Logan, I have thought about it." The corners of Xavier's mouth turned upward in a smile.

"And?" Logan leaned his back against the glass.

"I want you to start training with Rogue and the others we selected. Start, mind you – you are not tell them what their mission is. At this point, Logan, I feel it is better that they don't know. Continue your separate training with Rogue, and I will work out a solution to her problem."

Logan nodded and walked over to Rogue's bed side, sitting on the floor and talking slowly.

"Stripes, I'm sorry I'm pushing you so hard, girl, but you have so much in you. You're like me, girl, a survivor at heart. And...you deserve more then the crap the world's been throwing at us lately. Stupid DNA defect. It doesn't make much sense to me – a man's a man like a duck tastes good with sauce, y'know?" He sighed.

Charles nodded and pushed the button, moving away to allow Logan to express his thoughts in privacy.

He soon found Hank, working in his lab, a short way away from Rogue's bed. He smiled and moved up beside the blue doctor.

"Hank? I was wondering if you'd gotten around to that DNA test I asked you about."

The doctor turned and smiled, his glasses placed gently on his nose, and his lab coat seeming just a tad small on his large arms.

"Indeed, Professor. It would appear your theory is correct. Rogue has DNA matches within the system. The computer's still compiling, but I'll tell you as soon as it runs a confirmation." He smiled and nodded.

Charles Xavier nodded and went over to Cerebro.

-x-

Todd was walking through the core of the city, alongside Pietro, Tabitha and Lance. He was happy to get outside – he felt like he'd been inside with the other mutants for too long. Tabby was happily dancing around and Pietro was watching her with a smile. Lance seemed to be ignoring everybody.

Tabby spotted something sparkley in a store window and dragged Pietro inside. Pietro laughed and followed her, holding her hand and fishing for his wallet.

Lance nodded and whispered, "Don't do anything conspicuous," before running into the corner store across the street.

And that is how Todd Tolansky found himself alone on the street of Perry Avenue.

He leaned against a street lamp that wasn't on and watched the people pass by. The normal people who complained about mutants. Todd didn't understand why they were so upset – it wasn't like he was going to slime any of them, but he supposed he was afraid of them the way they were of him.

A fly buzzed around his head. He tried hard to ignore it – he did. But it was all around his hair and in his ear and he could hear it like a dull roar in the form of a constant buzzing fly.

A flash of green caught Todd's eye and he perked up – hoping to see Pherma walking through the streets, thinking he could catch a glimpse of her and impress her somehow.

He hopped up onto the street post, using his tongue to catch the fly on his way up – not thinking.

"AHH! MUTANT!" Some woman screamed.

His eyes opened wide as he immediately dropped to the ground, hoping no one would notice him. It was useless.

He was shoved and pushed. People screamed at him. "Get out of here, you filthy mutie!"

Someone had the audacity to throw groceries at him.

Frightened, he tried to run away, but two large men blocked his path. They grabbed him by the front of his shirt and shook him forcefully until he was dizzy and disoriented.

"What's the matter, freak? Can't handle life out here with the normal people? After all, it's not our fault nature screwed you up." The first one said. The second one, a Hispanic man, punched Todd in the face. He fell to the ground in a thud, landing on his lower backs. He winced as the men hovered above him.

"No, please, I didn't mean.." he started, but the one man stomped on his stomach and he cried out in pain.

"Let's go, amigo," the second man tapped his friend on the shoulder, "mutie trash isn't worth our time." He looked down at Todd. "_Adios_, freak."

As Todd clamored to get back up, he was pushed down. A little girl in a yellow sun dress kicked his foot and yelled "You're mean!" which he thought was particularly uncalled for.

Every time he tried to get back to standing, someone pushed him down. Women, men and children muttered and shouted insults at him. Some men spat at him. Someone poured hot coffee on his head.

Tears were threatening to spill out of his eyes as he feet finally found the ground and he pushed himself to his feet.

As soon as Todd Tolansky was standing, he fell once more, never to stand again.

Tabby and Pietro came out of the store with a small bag in hand, still laughing. They saw as Todd stood and fell back to the ground.

"Todd!" Tabby yelled and they quickly ran (well, slowly for Pietro as not to attract any more attention) over to their fallen comrade.

When Lance came out of the corner store, pocket full of a new carton of cigarettes and a Bic lighter, he found Pietro cradling Tabby in his arms as she sobbed, Pietro staring blankly at Todd's lifeless body.

-x-

**A/N:**

WOAH!

Now that took me eternity to work on. I'm so sorry guys – I had a total block as to where I wanted to go after the Rogue/Remy scene. BUT I finally finished.

So. quick spots...

**Sorry** that this took forever. I can't believe I haven't updated since September! I promise to have chapter 5 up before March Break, okay? Is that better? University applications kicked my ass – but I am finally done.

**Thank you:** to all of you who have put me on their alert list or those who have put this story on alert. It makes me feel loved. I also feel loved to those of who you have reviewed and left me your thoughts – I can't write to please if I don't know what you want, right? So give me thoughts.

**I am in need of a beta reader.** This chapter is, sadly, un-beta-ed. So, I am looking for a beta. One who will scream at me when I'm not writing if possible. Second to that, one who has similar fandoms as me would be awesome..I'm also currently writing a Sailor Moon fic to be called Bad Habits of which I finished Chapter One. I don't even have spell check now that I'm using Open Office Writer...because the program is in Italian. I don't speak or write in Italian...so yeah.

**Please review, and I'll see you soon!**

Through Darkness and Light /x\


	5. Of Truths and Lies

**Disclaimer:**So here we are, chapter 5 and I'm still not owning the X-Men. I will notify you if that changes, I promise.

-x-

A few girls were crying steadily. Wanda was leaning on John, who clutched his lighter, but never flicked it. Jubilee and Bobby held hands, and Jean and Scott refused to look at each other. The only two remaining members of the original brotherhood, Lance and Pietro were playing cards in an absent minded fashion, with Pietro constantly looking over at Tabitha, who was curled up into a ball on the couch.

The residents of the Xavier mansion were gathered in the recreation room, staring aimlessly at walls. The majority of the room was dressed in black, with a few who wore colours traditional to their own cultures. Rogue wore all black (not that she was normally colourful). She never had an extreme fondness for Toad, but he was still someone she'd known for a long time, and for him to die like that just seemed..unfair. Unnatural.

Logan surveyed the room and sighed, walking away. He wasn't one to dwell on past things; he'd been alive so long that he understood that everybody died eventually. He of course, lived on the daily assumption that his death was within extremely close range – assuming anyone was smart enough to figure out how to kill him.

He walked away from the kids and back towards Hank's lab. The professor, Ororo and Hank were discussing Todd's death, and he wanted to know what conclusions they came to. Since none of the kids had seen anything, Hank had performed an autopsy on the professor's orders. Logan was curious as to the cause of the boy's early death.

He found each of the teaching staff standing, arms crossed, in the lab. The professor nodded to Logan as he walked in the room and leaned against a cabinet.

"As I feared, Todd has been murdered. Hank, if you would?" Xavier motioned with one hand to the blue doctor, who turned and pulled a plastic Tupperware container off the shelf and passed it to Ororo, motioning for her to examine it and then pass it to Logan. Inside, was a small, circular object, with one sharp pointed arrow extending from one side, much like a screw.

"What you are seeing is an advanced piece of technology that was shot into Todd's neck from a shot at far range. It was likely silent and moving at a speed invisible to the human eye. I found it lodged in the blood stream. It ejected an immediate poison that targets the X gene." Hank said. Logan grabbed the tupperwear and stared at the minute dart – he could barely see the tiny black head.

"So you're saying if sniper boy missed and hit a human, they'd be fine." He growled and looked up at the fuzzy doctor with a raised eyebrow.

Beast nodded and Logan tossed the container over to him, which he caught with a surprised expression.

The professor sighed, and the three adult mutants turned their eyes to him. "That means that not only was this a direct attack, but a planned strike against the mutant community."

_ Snkt!_ Logan's claws shot out from his hands, and a single drop of blood fell to the floor from the tears in his skin. "And that means they'll do it again." He snarled and started walking out.

He ignored the calls of "Logan!" and "wait!" as he stomped into the living room, where all the students were gathered. Shocked eyes looked up at him. A few kids gulped. Rogue looked confused, Kitty sniffled, and Jamie woke Tabby up.

The room was silent, and the younger mutants were refusing to take their eyes away from Logan and most were afraid he would somehow disappear if they blinked.

"Todd didn't die." Hope rose up in some, and it was quickly squashed. "He was murdered by people who are targeting mutants. Which means it's time to get scared, and time to get smart. So there are new rules."

A lot of the kids gulped. Logan was being blunt; it was the only way that made sense to him, and so he was going to run with it. "No going outside the grounds alone – and not at all if you're obviously a mutant and you can't cover it." He nodded at Kurt, for example. "No using your powers outside the mansion. Danger room sessions are mandatory for everyone and you need clearance from all four of us before leaving the city. Curfew for everyone is sunset – and if you're off property after dark you will be the target in the danger session at four the next morning!"

He walked through the room to stand in front of the fireplace, and they all followed him with their eyes. Professor Xavier, Ororo and Hank were standing in the back of the room, watching Logan as well. They had yet to interrupt, so Logan was going to assume they were agreeing; and if they weren't, he'd still impose the rules on the kids.

"As of right now you're all going to carry cell phones and some kind of panic button at all times, I even want you wearing them when you're asleep. And I_ will_ skewer the first one of you I see who breaks any of these new rules, you got it?"

No one bothered to speak. They were all shocked. They'd gone from mourning to DefCon2 within minutes (many of the younger mutants thought of DefCon4, but those who had experienced the mansion explosion from four years ago referred to this lock down as DefCon2 – DefCon4 couldn't be declared until lead shielding popped up all over the windows).

Logan, contented that the kids both feared and understood the new rules, stomped out of the room. He heard soft wheels turning and stopped so that the Professor could catch up to him.

"I think that those were some very good ideas, Logan." Charles said softly, knowing not to provoke Logan into anger.

Logan nodded. "Thanks Chuck. I think it's time we revisited our security system. I'll start on it in the morning." Charles wheeled away with a soft whirring sound, and Logan climbed into an elevator, headed for a punching bag.

-x-

The next morning, a new Danger room schedule had appeared in everybody's room, posted to the door. Rogue found that her schedule had been loaded up, with private training with Logan, small group training with a few other mutants, and X-men group training; leaving her with two to three Danger Room sessions every day.

"No one will evah get fat while livin' here." She grunted and began to throw on a pair of sweat pants and a brown long sleeve shirt. The young woman tied her hair back with an elastic and strapped on a pair of gloves before jogging over to the elevator.

When Rogue walked out into the danger room, she was suprised at who was there. Pherma, Kitty, Pete Wisdom, Tabitha and Pietro were all standing in the room, talking. Logan was no where to be seen. She was very confused; she had no idea what this particular batch of people were going to be doing together, but she shrugged and started stretching anyway.

Logan walked in and crossed his arms, standing in front of everyone else. He raised an eyebrow at Pherma's attire – she wore yoga pants and a red sports bra, with her long hair tied back. She smirked at him, in response he rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Alright. There's two more who aren't at the mansion yet who'll be joining this group, but we're gonna start without them."

Logan motioned and all of the older X-men lined up facing the wall. The rest fell into line, some looking very curious. He walked up and down the line, loudly declaring the instructions.

"Welcome to Black X. This is a special missions unit separate to the X-Men, which is why your schedules have been modified for both X-Men training or standard training if you are not a member of the X-Men, as well as Black X training. You will not discuss anything that happens in Black X training outside the room. You are never to tell anyone when you are on a mission, or doing anything involved with this unit. No one besides the members of Black X, Professor Xavier and Magneto are to every discover that Black X exists. If you have any questions, keep 'em to yourself." He snorted. Kitty looked like she was very determined to ask a few questions – curiosity killed the cat after all, and Kitty was not a particular exception to that rule.

Pete Wisdom rolled his eyes as he saw the reaction that Kitty had. He was used to this sort of thing from days of being in black ops, and it didn't bother him in the slightest that the mutants were creating their own operation front. In fact, he thought it was a damn good idea and about bloody time.

Rogue said nothing. She had wondered why the intensity of her training had changed. But she started to factor in the different aspects that each of the mutants in the room could bring. Kitty-intelligence or breaking and entry; Wisdom-experience and stealth; Pherma-reconnassiance, distractions; Pietro-speed and getaways...it started to click. The mutants in this room were chosen for their abilities and skills, not for their age or alliance. Clearly the professor and Logan had something planned, but she hadn't a clue as to what.

"These sessions aren't going to be like your regular training. Not a lot of combat, and a lot of skills that you won't see the need for until much later on. You may never tell anyone outside Black X what we are doing. So, for your first task, we're going to learn about lying."

Curious looks shot from one teen to an adult and back around the room quickly. Logan indulged the kids, he let them whisper and wonder about what their next few days would be like, what kind of training this could possibly be.

"For the next 24 hours, you must absolutely lie to every question you are asked. If someone asks you for your favourite colour, lie. If someone asks you if you took something, lie. And learn to run with what happens after."

Logan focused his eye on each mutant, one at a time, slowly taking them in and studying them. "We begin right now."

He walked over to Pietro, "What kind of ability do you have?" Logan growled easily.

Pietro shrugged off the larger man's advances. He had Magneto for a father – lying was second nature and in the genes. "What the hell are you talking about? I'm not one of those mutie freaks."

Rogue was impressed with the disgusted tone of Pietro's voice. He genuinely sounded like one of the crowd. It was a little scary, but she ignored it. They were just going to do what they had to do.

Logan gestured to the door with his hand. "You can go." He started going down the line. A decent, convincing lie was all it took to be dismissed from today's 'training' session. Some went easily and in seconds, like Tabby and Pherma, but others, like Kitty, had trouble staring Logan down.

"Mr. Logan, I'm not really the lying type..." Wisdom snorted and Kitty glared at him.

"Where were you born, Half-pint?" Logan inwardly groaned. This was the third question he had asked her, and she had yet to tell one convincing lie. She was doomed in the field. Absolutely doomed.

"Uh...California?" Kitty asked. Everyone in the room groaned in unison.

"Don't ask, Pryde, know. It's your birth place – say it like you know it, not like you don't. Say it as sure as you'd say your favourite colour is..." he paused and looked her up and down, "pink." Wisdom finished with disdain.

"Okay. California." She said this time with a bit more certainty. It sounded...almost convincing.

"Half-pint, we are going to try one more time and then I'm throwing you out of here by your ponytail and you will just have to lie to everybody else in the building about why, you got it?" She nodded and gulped.

Rogue caught her eye and gestured for Kitty to breathe and try to calm down.

"What is your favourite subject in school?" Logan asked, nearly pleading. It was obvious he really didn't want to deal with Kitty anymore.

Kitty saw Wisdom smirking out of the corner of her eye. He didn't think she could do it. He didn't think she was good enough to be in the group. Well, she'd show him.

She looked Logan straight in the eye. "Gym." She said.

Rogue looked at Wisdom. Wisdom looked at Logan. Logan looked at Rogue. And instantly, all three broke out into grins.

"That, Kitty, was convincing. Now keep doing that for the rest of the assignment." Kitty smiled, a very happy and satisfied smile and skipped out of the room, her ponytail bouncing behind her.

Wisdom shook his head, smirking. "That girl is going to get shot." His accent was thick, and he was checking his pockets for a cigarette, but that was about it.

Logan raised an eyebrow to the Englishman. "Wisdom, why the hell are you even still here? I told you I knew you're good enough. You still have to do the assignment though."

"I wanted to stay and ogle Pryde some more." Wisdom smirked. It was apparent that he was going to very much enjoy this whole lying assignment for the remainder of the day. With that comment, he tipped his imaginary hat to Rogue and sauntered out of the danger room.

"So Logan, let's start lying." Rogue nodded her head towards her teacher.

"Rogue, I'm not near stupid enough to think you can't lie to my face. To any body's face. I think you're capable of lying to your self. I just hope when it gets down to it, you can figure out which lies are which."

She blinked. Logan unbuttoned his shirt to reveal a white wife beater, and tossed the button up black shirt on the ground. He took a few steps and then sat down, cross -legged, in the meditation pose he and Rogue had been using so frequently.

"Are you ready?" He closed his eyes and didn't particularly care what her answer was.

She sighed. There were too many games happening, between having to remember to lie when being asked things, and to control her powers and deal with cajuns breaking into her room and Toad dying and it was a lot to deal with at once.

Rogue tried to concentrate. She went through all of the calming rituals that Logan had taught her, breathing in patterns, focusing on the darkness of her mind, using black bricks to block out her thoughts, but there was too many, and for every brick that blocked out one thought, another thought would break through any tranquility she had and she would be right back to where she was.

Logan must have realized that she wasn't ready to begin her exercises, because he was sitting with his back against hers, his legs crossed and meditating normally. "Y'know, Rogue, sometimes the only way to clear your head is to spit out whatever it is that you can't stop thinking about."

She dropped her head. As the southerner opened her eyes and laid down on the ground, she groaned. Her limbs were sore.

"This whole freaking place is a mess, Logan. There's mutants everywhere, you can't get ice cream out of the fridge if you put it in there ten seconds before, and now Todd's dead. Ah knew him, Logan, Ah knew him. We weren't friends, we didn't talk, but Ah knew him and now he's dead. And it's not like he just died, he was murdered by somebody just cause he has diff'rent genes then them and now anybody could die because we're mutants and apparently somebody decided they have the right to kill us and Ah don't see the point of us tryin' to make the world bettah because people don't even want us in it and ah'm not sure I want to be in it!" She ranted.

"Rogue. Being a mutant is important, you know. It means you can do something other people can't. It means you can help people and you can make the world better if you want to. But you're right – outside this mansion is the real world, and it's a scary place, especially for you kids. So Stripes, the best way to cope is to be ready for what the world is going to throw at you, and to deal with your stress." He hadn't turned to face her, but his words were strong and clear. She imagined he didn't want to look her in the eye while being sensitive and encouraging, and so she didn't mind not looking at him either. The whole being emotional thing didn't really work for either of them.

She turned her head and cracked her neck on both sides, and stood up. "Dealing with my stress, huh? So, does that mean I can have today off?"

Logan grinned, turned around and stood up. "Not a chance. Now, attack me."

-x-

Kitty was again, in the library. She was curled up in a chair, hugging her laptop, which was giving off both warmth and playing soft music. She figured that if she was going to have ot lie to people, avoiding them would be the best way of not telling the truth about things.

She wrote a quick letter to her parents, giving no details of Toad's death, the funeral, or anything that was actually happening at the mansion, and instead wrote about her pasta adventure the night before – the first time she ever cooked spaghetti sauce without lighting it on fire. It was rated her best meal ever by the entire house, and Ororo looked at her and said that Kitty was finally starting to become a better cook. Everyone had been happy to have an edible meal that night when they had expected charcoal and a serious need to dial the pizza place.

She looked up when she heard whistling, only to see Pete Wisdom walking in and taking a seat in front of her. Apparently, annoying her had become Wisdom's latest hobby.

"Wisdom, we're in the library, why don't you just grab a book and leave me the hell alone?" She said.

"Because I'm secretly fascinated by your being and want to spend all my time basking in your presence." She glared at him, then groaned aloud when Logan's instructions for his little lying game came rushing back to her presence.

"So, Pryde, I've been thinking."

"I realize it's hard the first time, but it'll get easier."

"Very drôle. Would you go to dinner with me on Friday?" He grinned, as her jaw dropped open. He was using the game against her – she had to lie. He knew it, and he could easily make sure that Logan would know if she broke the rules.

So, she sat there, open mouthed, staring in shock at Pete Wisdom. The grumpy Brit was enjoying this assignment far too much for her own tastes.

"Great. We'll be going 'round 8 then." He started to stand and Kitty finally found her voice.

"You're only doing this to tick me off!" She shouted.

"And behold my success. See you Friday, Pryde." With a catchy tune, he hummed as he waltzed out of the library, leaving Kitty to hyperventilate on her own.

-x-

Rogue was walking back to her room when a flash of blue caught her eye in an open doorway. She turned back and poked her head in the room.

"Hey, Kurt, Ah think Amanda said somethin' about.." She froze as she entered her room. Instead of her step brother standing there, her eyes widened to see her mother was in fact the blue skinned mutant in the room.

"Rogue.." Mystique started, softly, hoping to soothe her daughter.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOIN' HERE?!" She shouted. Rogue's breath became quicker and more shallow. As her mother advanced towards her, she backed up, falling against a dresser. Several cosmetics and various items rattled behind her, and her back pressed against the mirror.

"Rogue, I'm here to help, really." Rogue was hardly calmed by her mother's presence. Tired from her session with Logan, she did the first thing that came to mind.

"You don't have the right! You can't be here! You can't help! You only make things worse and you only care about yourself! What about Kurt? Oh, god, Kurt! Haven't we told you already? Stay the hell away from us, Mystique!"

"No, Rogue, really, I'm here to help you! I'm here to make your problems go away!" Mystique tried yet another time to move towards the southern girl, but to no avail. This time, Rogue backed towards the window – willing to jump out of it and pray she was okay when she landed if she had to.

"Make the problems go away?" Rogue laughed bitterly. "You are the problem! God!" Rogue felt her eye twitch, and looked down. Her hands were turning blue, and then into claws, and back to her regular hands. The insides of her brain felt like they were on fire, the psyches inside her screaming with rage and fury that didn't belong to her, and she fell back against the open window.

Mystique grabbed onto her arm, and as Rogue tugged her arm back, her sleeve slid up her arm, and her mother's fingers grazed her skin. She groaned as the image of her as a little girl flashed before her eyes, images of Kurt playing in Germany, of Destiny scrawling out predictions in her diaries.

"Rogue, no!" The blue mutant shouted. She reached for Rogue again, who threw herself backwards away from the woman.

Rogue had already been standing in front of the window, and now threw herself backwards harder then before. She fell backwards and tumbled out the window.

The memory of watching the Mystique statue fall off the cliff started replaying in her mind as she felt herself falling down from the side of the building. She could see Mystique, face pulled into horror as she stretched her arm out, a sad, failed attempt to catch Rogue.

Rogue closed her eyes as air rushed up, as her memories and Mystique's flowed easily through her mind, intertwining and confusing her.

A memory of Kurt teleporting around the house away from his foster parents took over, as Rogue started to question how much longer before she reached the ground. Mystique had obviously been spying on him in his younger years - her pathetic way of making up for her absence.

She closed her eyes and tried to focus on the happiness Kurt was showing – he was enjoying playing with his parents. Her body seemed to curl up into a ball on its own. _Why does falling to my death take so damn long?_ Rogue thought.

She smelt sulphur, and suddenly her body felt like it was splitting at the seams – one half of her trying to rip apart from the other. She felt herself hit the ground and opened her eyes. She was on the small, flat portion of the large roof. Somehow, adrenaline had taken over and she had tapped into Kurt's powers and teleported.

She stood up, dizzy, a side effect of using Kurt's powers without having touched him recently.

Looking around, she blinked smoke out of her eyes – _Is it like this for Kurt?_ - and saw a figure standing on the roof. His back was turned to her, but he wore a long trench coat and had a cigarette in his left hand.

"Well, _Chère_, it looks like you can't stay away from Remy after all, hmm?" He took a long drag and turned around to wink at her, before sitting on the edge of the roof and humming softly.

Rogue walked to the other side of the roof, away from the Cajun, and sat down on the edge, trying to figure out how she was going to get down.

The silence was eerie, and she rubbed at her arms, trying to keep warm. It might not have been so bad if she had been alone, but the damn Cajun had to be up here too, in the freezing winds.

He must have some how noticed her looking at the gutters, trying to notice the closest open window. Unfortunately, because the wind was so rough tonight, most all the windows were closed.

"You know, _chèrie_, you should spend less time thinking about how to leave and more time enjoying the time you have up here."

"Cajun, Ah may have eternity up here if Ah can't find a way down."

"Remy'll get y'down if you relax."

She spent twenty minutes ignoring his proposal, trying to think of a way that didn't rely on her powers (which were definitely no guarantee). She gave up and walked over to his side of the roof. She sat down next to him in a huff and stuck her hand out.

He handed her his pack of cigarettes. She wasn't sure what irked her more – that he knew what she want, or that he understood her enough to know what she wanted, including the bit about getting down. He snapped his fingers and the cigarette lit – a perk to his powers.

She held the cigarette easily, taking a long drag and sighing. It was like seeing an old friend for the first time in years – like coming home. Coffee, cigarettes and good music made the world go 'round.

"How long since you last had a smoke?" He asked.

"A year, or so." She whispered, handing back the pack and the lighter. He held up a gloved hand, stopping her and refusing to take them.

"Keep 'em, then. So you won't have to wait so long."

"Mmm." Rogue exhaled, flicking the end of her cigarette. They were quiet, whispering back and forth without reason. After all, they were outside and it wasn't likely anyone was going to hear them.

"What are you doing up here anyway, Cajun?" She asked. She threw her cigarette off the roof and took a second from the pack he had given her.

"No smoking in the mansion, Rogue. Baldy's rules." He lay down, staring upwards. "And Remy likes to watch the smoke."

"Watch the smoke?" She asked. He motioned for her to lie down next to him. She rolled her eyes. He repeated the motion and she lay down.

"Look." He grabbed her cigarette, snapped his fingers, took a drag and exhaled. The smoke traveled up and dissipated. "It can go anywhere it wants, but it's only got a few seconds before it falls apart and there's not enough of it left for you to see." He handed the cigarette back to her, and she exhaled into the night sky, looking for the same process that he had described.

Remy sighed and his fingers twitched, the kinetic energy being a familiar constant presence – albeit one that made him a bit jumpy. "'Always thought that it was like an explosion. It just gets so pent up, and then one hot powerful moment – like being kissed by _une belle femme_, and it explodes. It just can't stay together anymore."

"Oh, and I suppose you've kissed enough '_belle femmes_' to know what it feels like?" She snorted. She didn't like to listen to people talking about anything physical; it was like talking to an alcoholic about how fun it was to get drunk, or telling someone who is lactose intolerant that milk is holy.

"Remy's kissed plenty o'_femmes_, sure, but none that make Remy want to 'splode." He sighed and sat up, shaking his head lightly. "Remy thinks that'll be the _femme_ he stays with."

Rogue raised an eyebrow and sat up next to him. She winced – she had sat up too fast. When her head cleared, she found red irises searching her green ones. "Why're you being all deep and sentimental with me, Swamp Rat?"

She was surprised to find, that when Remy was being truly emotive, his third person trait dropped away. "Because, River Rat, you are one of the few people in this mansion who is neither trying to kill me, or get into my pants, and still has a brain in their head left over."

He took a deep breath and ran a hand through his shaggy hair. He looked good in relaxed clothes – a pair of loose cargo pants and an old black faded t shirt made him look more comfortable then his bod armour and face plate, though his trench coat reminded her of who he was – she could see the pack of cards sticking out of his pocket.

"Why are you up here listening to me, then?"

"Because Ah can't get down." She answered, her voice sounding cold. Logan's game didn't even spring to mind -the reponse was natural.

He chuckled and stretched his arms up. "Whatever you say, River Rat, whatever you say."

-x-

**A/N: Well!** I tried to have this done before March Break, but since that didn't happen (that was a week ago), I have it ready for Easter instead.

And Yay! Spaces. I'm going to go back and do chapters 1-4 in better spacing so they're easier to read for you guys, and possibly tweak Rogue's accent – because I hate writing in said accent. It's annoying.

So please send love, anger, laughter, whatever this chapter makes you feel. If you like bits and hate others, tell me, because other chapters don't improve without you telling me. Love to you all. (March 22nd, 2008)

**March 30, 2008:** Just going through all my chapters, fixing indents and scene breaks. Thanks!

Through Darkness and Light /x\


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